17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
My favorite hobbies are ones that involve being creative: making cards and piecing quilts. Many men enjoy woodworking or gardening. There’s something refreshing and inspiring about creating something new or different.
The dictionary defines “create” as: (1) to bring into existence; (2) to produce through imaginative skill; (3) to make or bring into existence something new. When God created the world, He brought it all into existence from nothing. He even had to create the raw materials to work with. And He did it simply by the power of His word. Even as my cards or quilts and your woodworking project or garden plants have no control over their own creation, so too we are helpless to make ourselves into the new creation God wants us to be.
The “new creation” that we become when we are “in Christ” was brought into existence by the imaginative skill of our wonderful Creator. He took a filthy, ugly, hopeless, messed-up soul and made it brand-new by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Just as when I examine one of my creative hobbies and find pleasure in the outcome, God looks at the new creation He has made through his Son, Jesus, and I imagine Him stepping back, looking it over, and a smile crossing his face.
Because of Christ, the old filthy, ugly, hopeless, messed-up soul has become a thing of beauty at the hands of the Master Creator. As we live out our new creation, may the Lord find joy in the outcome!
Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me by the hands of the Father Creator, the new life of His Son, Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Contributed by Karen Seutter